cousins

my sister G and my niece H have been in town.

my sister makes the cutest tutus for H.

maybe someday she'll make one for my little monkey.

wink wink

the whole cousin crew

something's missing

On Saturday mornings, I am usually gone during breakfast on a long run while I train for a marathon. While I am gone, my husband likes to make crepes with the kids. I came home Saturday from my run and asked how the crepes were. My husband said they tasted weird. Today, I went to heat something up in the microwave and guess what I found...melted butter...for crepes. Oops!!

in love

...with these two...

I Love Flowers...

...but I really love flowers when they are a surprise.

Dolphin loves to go to the grocery store with Dad to get things I have forgotten to pick up from the store earlier in the day for dinner.

Along with the needed groceries, Dolphin likes to sneak in flowers for me.

He'll walk into the house and tell me to close my eyes, then pulls them out from behind his back.

{he makes me smile!}

Easter

We woke up Easter morning to a fresh coat of snow on the ground. I'm surprised the Easter Bunny was able to find out house through all of the snow. We also left the kids Easter baskets at my in-laws the day before after the annual Easter egg hunt. We improvised with "You Are Special" plates. That bunny is a pretty smart fella' and figured it out.

Spring will come, right???

The kids "baskets"

Happy Easter!

"To Infinity...And Beyond!"

Florida

We were fortunate to be able to go with my husband's family to Destin for a week.

It was perfect.

Dolphin, the night we arrived.

I wondered if we would be able to get him inside.

Speaking of dolphins, we were able to watch several swimming right off the beach a couple of times. It was pretty cool.

My two kids.

They really are best friends.

This picture is my favorite from the whole trip.

It says everything about their relationship.

Monkey face-planted it a few times running from the waves.

Dolphin loves to fly. The higher the better.

Hubby and Uncle "O" survived their brave voyage out to sea.

The Family

I found out 5 minutes before we took the picture that I would be taking it. I don't use the timer on my camera very often and didn't have time to figure out how to change it from a 2-second timer to a 10-second timer. I had to run FAST!!! I made it!

Baby "G"

My sweet baby nephew "G".

The "P" Family

Thanks to my cousin for asking me to take her family pictures this year.

I love, love, love this picture of my cousin and her husband. :)

You might recognize Baby "P" from this shoot.

Whole Wheat Waffles

My husband went out with a friend tonight so I asked Dolphin what he wanted for dinner. He asked for breakfast dinner. Perfect time to experiment, I thought. I pulled out my grandma's cookbook and turned to my favorite waffle recipe. Then I tweaked it, and they turned out great. I hope you enjoy them too. (Sorry no pics, we ate them too fast!)

Whole Wheat Waffles

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 tablespoon organic sugar, or sucanat

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1 tablespoon aluminum-free baking powder

2 organic eggs

1 1/2 cups almond milk (or milk of your choice)

1/3 cup virgin coconut oil, melted

Mix all together in a bowl. Cook in waffle iron until done.

I was surprised by how well they turned out. They will be a new family favorite.

Chickpea Quinoa Pilaf

I was looking for something easy and nutritious to make for dinner last night and got side-tracked looking through a newsletter from the local health and nutrition store. I found a recipe for Chickpea Quinoa Pilaf. It sounded good (and easy, and nutritious) so I gave it a try. My husband and I loved it. The kids liked picking out the chickpeas. :)

We started dinner out with this salad:

Romaine Lettuce, torn

Carrots, sliced in discs

Avovado, diced

Mix in bowl and top with favorite dressing. I like to drizzle a little balsamic vinegar and add a bit of agave. Yum!

We ate the Pilaf with steamed broccoli.

This recipe originally comes from Veganomicon but I made a few changes. Here it is the way I prepared it.

Chickpea Quinoa Pilaf

2 tablespoons virgin coconut oil

1 small yellow onion, chopped finely (about 1 cup)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

ground black pepper, to taste

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 cup quinoa, rinsed well

1 (15 oz) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

2 cups vegetable broth

In a small stockpot over medium heat, saute the onions in coconut oil for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and saute for 2 more minutes. Add the tomato paste, cumin, black pepper, and salt. Saute for another minute. Add the quinoa and saute for 2 miutes. Add the chickpeas and broth and bring to a boil. Once the mixture is boiling, lower the heat to very low, cover, and cook for about 18-22 minutes, or until the quinoa has absorbed all the water; stir occasionally. Fluff with a fork and serve.